What was interesting about Tesla’s investor letter this time around was the notable departure from providing guidance on vehicle deliveries for the coming year.

Last year, Tesla guided to 80,000-90,000 deliveries and fell short, getting only about 75,000 vehicles into customers’ hands.

For 2017, the company said that it would “deliver 47,000 to 50,000 Model S and Model X vehicles combined in the first half of 2017, representing vehicle delivery growth of 61% to 71% compared with the same period last year. In addition, both GAAP and non-GAAP.”

Tesla also said that it expects to be producing 5,000 of its forthcoming Model 3 mass-market vehicle “at some point in the fourth quarter and 10,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2018.”

A little back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that Tesla should deliver something like 150,000 vehicles in 2017, if it can make those numbers.

This means that Tesla will require a significant increase in deliveries to meet CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to deliver 500,000 vehicles annually by 2018.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to requests for a comment on its deliveries guidance.

But after softly rolling back guidance in 2016, when the 80-90,000 vehicles for the full year became 50,000 for the second half, Tesla appears to be preemptively dialling back on its ambitious deliveries targets ahead of the Model 3 launch.

However, if taking a breather on Musk’s guidance goals means Tesla will launch the Model 3 on schedule, investors may reward the company’s caginess on deliveries. Tesla shares were trading up after hours, about 2% to $US278.